Introduction
The pertinent issue of appropriate professional attire has become far more complicated today, considering the rapidly changing work mechanism. The days when dressing professionally meant wearing a basic suit and tie are over in most businesses, but skirts and blouses are still modest. This process shows more in the way people’s culture is changing, technology is making significant leaps, and society’s customs are being simplified rather than just fashions. Gone are the days of the conventional office attire, which was usually synonymous with its observable formality, uniform appearance and long-lived customs. Nowadays, more and more companies are discovering new strategies to dress when going to work.
The impetus for this thesis is to look at how clothing uniforms have evolved over time. They focus on the fact that modern professional wear is really demanding diversity, the need for practicality, and the level of personal expression. It refers to a new trend that tends to overthrow the rather conservative professional norms and brings to life the well-liked cultural developments of the day, which point towards diversity and individualized forms of expression. In contrast to past paradigms, the realities of present-day amendments, the involvement of technology and telecommuting are to be considered; and not to be misled, the professional attire varies from sector to sector. This will be done to clarify the complex networks of factors that govern the standards of professional attire today. Professional dress-coding evolution goes beyond a simple shift in clothing preferences. Thus, it is more than just a simple culture change in the corporate environment, which focuses on enhancing tolerance, inclusivity, and individual health. To achieve the goal of representing the workforce that is now more differentiated and fast-moving, this dissertation will illustrate how the standards of professional attire are becoming more inclusive while keeping a touch of being formal.
Historical Perspective on Professional Dress
Social and economic values continue to change from generation to generation, which is reflected in the various phases of fashion. Both men and women in the late 1800s used a formal dress code, which meant that the women’s dresses were simple, with the top being a blouse and a skirt, while men were dressed in coats with top hats. The responses to the ships’ first encounters with death and sickness were equally as rigorous, and they slowly developed a cold professionalism that prevented personal interaction (Israel, 2010.). Before that, the decade of the ’20s was characterized by fewer women entering the job and trying to look like men. However, the 1930s Great Depression brought a major change as women started to take men’s jobs, and their fashion began to include suits.
Because of fabric shortages in the post-World War II period, men adopted single-breasted suits instead of double-breasted ones, relieving ladies who welcomed Chanel’s knit suits and long skirts that Dior made famous. Not long after this, Levi’s jump-started the Dockers brand, and the tech boom in the 1990s catalyzed the mass adoption of this trend. In the old days, fitted suits and ties were moved to the more liberal approach, with khaki as the dominant colour and polo shirts as the predominant clothing. In the beginning, the use of a more casual dress code was perceived as one of their advantages due to its ease of use and practicability, leading to the acceptance of even the most prominent companies, such as American Express and IBM, to have a less strict dress code (Shinn et al., 2012).
Contemporary Changes in Professional Dress
In the professional world of the 21st century, the dress code is still evolving, becoming more empowering by culture and a daily personal show-up. The technological sector in Silicon Valley has a world reputation for its informal dress code, and this relaxing rule has proven that it is possible to dress professionally and flexibly (Ford, 2021). However, this outward swerve from established protocols reflects the need for user-friendliness and practicality rather than formality. Results show that a dress code that is not strict can be beneficial towards employee satisfaction and productivity. Social scientists discovered that businesses that use friendly language give their employees a boost in productivity, and the workers love how easy it becomes to go from work to their personal lives by taking off their working clothes (Shinn et al., 2012). During the early 2000s, businesses started returning to their standard attire, such as suits. They formally coupled it with a more casual blazer or shirt because of concerns about maintaining a consistent professional image (Ford, 2021). To date, corporate dress is the trend in town; it could bear a meaning of formality and individuality if mixed with the modern way of dressing. The change exhibits that modern professionalism was no longer a rigid adherence to strict dress principles due to the diversity and inclusiveness creeping in as new cultural norms.
Impact of Technology and Remote Work on Professional Dress Standards
People’s perception of work attire has changed over the past years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in the use of remote employment. While formal business attire remained prevalent in the past and businesses required strictly suited workers and colleagues to show up well dressed, a more relaxed business culture and options of wearing casual clothes are now known. The roots of wearing formal outfits can be traced back to professions tied to traditions, and formal attire was worn to show honesty and credibility. However, the pandemic’s short yet abrupt switch to remote jobs shattered the old rules, redefining the rules on correct office attire. The key elements of comfort and utility emerged in remote work.
With the shift to home-based work, there arose a tendency among the employees to become more high-casual. Other factors have not just driven such a move, but it also exhibits how social width changed the attitude toward work-life balance and welfare of the workers. Moreover, one of the favourite brands was comfort clothing, including joggers, sweatpants and casual tees. It showed the recent development that the part of clothing seen on camera, instead of a complete outfit, needs to comply with conservative norms. Consequently, the formal dressing is now limited to a Zoom shirt with decent upper garments. With a clear trend of a more casual culture in the business life of formal clothing standards dropping, the work atmosphere is becoming increasingly informal. It reflects the attitudes and values of being more tailored and accessible with less strict rules on fashion and more freedom for people to make their own style decisions. Businesses and industries are the first ones to respond to the trend of the day; they seek to strike a balance between the demand for comfort and flexibility in their choice of work attire and the need for a professional image with their clients who may be expecting to see a suit and tie. This issue of the establishment of clothing regulations may create a long-term culture of the workplace and employee engagement since the workplace is continuing to change.
Case Study: Dress Code Evolution at Goldman Sachs
As dress requirements in typical corporate environments are becoming more accommodating to remote work, we can have a real-time case of how the leading investment group, Goldman Sachs, adapted to that by allowing a business casual outfit. Historic for its strict dress code in the past, Goldman Sachs announced in 2019 its loosened dress code. Therefore, it was this pandemic’s presence that made up my mind. Employees who had followed a dress code where a suit and tie were the norm have now adopted a new business casual policy. Even when working remotely, this new policy is still being observed. This action placed the group district in a new position with the new specification of employee expectations and cultural changes as a strategic move driven by managers responding to changes in work dynamics and a more significant business trend towards casualization (Goldman Sachs, 2019).
Industry-Specific Dress Codes
There are different workplace dress codes within industries, and different industries have different rules. The ability of a sector to embrace modern approaches for designing a formal outfit has thus become exportable to contemporary industries like technology and creative arts. On the one hand, however, the changes are faster-paced in professions such as art, sports, and entertainment compared to those traditionally associated with formal dress, such as law and finance, where the shift tends to be slower. Companies have made adjustments even in the cases of some industries, but business suits have undoubtedly become more lax than they used to be. Workers’ dress regulations greenly endeavour to form the perception of professionalism in different business orientations, being multifaceted from its reflection on industry-specific traditions and customs. Acknowledging one’s important role in the process is evident when the conversations occur (Global Voices, 2022; Central College, n.d.).
Conclusion
The increase in remote working, voice, and video-conferencing strategies has brought much change regarding the style and culture of work wear, which is different from the standard workplace attire. This happened relatively fast because the pandemic raised questions about long-held beliefs about professionalism that were associated mainly with clothes styles in those days. The wearing of everyday and informal attire, as evidenced by the use of “Zoom shirts” at online meetings, is just one of the signs of a cultural shift in which employees’ comfort and well-being are valued above formality (GlobalVoices, 2022; LiquidSpace, n.d.). These standards of dressing that keep changing have impacts which are not limited to mere objective things as they allow a person to express their individuality. These companies have experienced significant changes regarding a mindset, understanding that it goes beyond ordinary work-life balance or employee wellness. Therefore, such a flow of events would result in reimagining professionalism as a performance measure and workers’ cooperation as more dominant than conventional dress codes.
Industries strive to balance creating a professional image and responding to dynamic work environments. In some cases, the rules and regulations concerning corporate dress are revised, and certain clothing styles are added or removed (Goldman Sachs, 2019). These changes in fashion standards not only show how we could get measured as professionals but also change the culture of the offices in the future. Will the pandemic’s casualization tendency continue after COVID, or perhaps some formal clothing despite regulations in specific industries? What consequences will this modification affect workers’ creativity level, productivity, and general job happiness? These questions show an ongoing debate from the public where clothing is a part of the discussion on how it relates to the changing nature of work.
REFERENCES
Central College. (n.d.). Dress Codes in the Workplace: Effects on Organizational Culture.
Ford, R. T. (2021). A Brief History of Dress Codes in the Workplace. Fortune.
Global Voices. (2022). Is a ‘professional’ dress code still relevant in a post-COVID workplace?
Goldman Sachs. (2019). Goldman Sachs Announces a More Flexible Dress Code. [Press Release].
Israel, D. K. (2010). Work Attire Over the Last 10 Decades. Mental Floss.
LiquidSpace. (n.d.). Future of Professional Dress: How Remote Work Could Alter Our Wardrobe.
Shinn, A., Swigart, A., Gritters, A., & Schmailzl, M. (2012). Dress Codes in the Workplace: Effects on Organizational Culture. Synaptic. Central College.
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